Brain Teasers
First Five Presidents
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Mr. Dribble was visiting his sister and his young nephew, Adam, who was studying modern American history. He showed him a list of all the American Presidents in order. As Mr. Dribble looked at the list he said three of the first five presidents died on Independence Day (July 4th). The young boy looked at the list and said, "I bet one of the presidents who died on July 4th was James Monroe."
Mr. Dribble was surprised that he knew this, and asked him how could he be so sure. How did Adam know this?
Mr. Dribble was surprised that he knew this, and asked him how could he be so sure. How did Adam know this?
Answer
Mr. Dribble stated that three of the first five presidents died on July 4th. Adam knew that the fifth must be one of the three or else Mr. Dribble would have said three of the first four. He knew the name of the fifth president by reading it off the list.Hide Answer Show Answer
What Next?
View a Similar Brain Teaser...
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Solve a Puzzle
Comments
This was still a guess.. could have said 3 out of 5 to give a "round number"
it was a guess, but a reasonable assumption. good one.
Good! Or.......................... maybe the boy memorized it?
Good one - very logical.
Is this site only for original work? This is not original. This is from a game called Mindtrap, as are several others that I have come across at this site. The person who submitted it did not come up with it on their own.
see now here i was thinking that the reason that the kid new it was because he'd been taught it...
not sure that the assumption that the fifth had to be included otherwise he would have said three of the first four works
not sure that the assumption that the fifth had to be included otherwise he would have said three of the first four works
I know, extrammi. I think nost of glennyboy's teasers are from Midtrap. That's how he submitted over 100 teasers. They're not original. No offense or anything, but I'm just saying: isn't that against the rules?
is that true about the presidents?
Very easy!
I don't want to comment about originality, except to say that very little is truly original. If you look at the greats, Martin Gardner and Raymond Smullyan, even they adapted a lot of older puzzles.
I found this puzzle very interesting. It's true that if you say "three of the first five" you are probably only going up as high as necessary. I'm not sure it's certain, though. Suppose he had said three of the first seven and the boy named no. 7. If he then protested that there is nothing special about the first seven as such, Dibble could reply "I never said there was", but it would be a trick question in that case.
So this teaser raises interesting questions about how we use language.
I found this puzzle very interesting. It's true that if you say "three of the first five" you are probably only going up as high as necessary. I'm not sure it's certain, though. Suppose he had said three of the first seven and the boy named no. 7. If he then protested that there is nothing special about the first seven as such, Dibble could reply "I never said there was", but it would be a trick question in that case.
So this teaser raises interesting questions about how we use language.
To post a comment, please create an account and sign in.
Follow Braingle!